Combined clothes cleaning, extracting, and drying machine.



C. c. MEUTSCH.

COMBINED CLOTHES CLEANING. EXTRACTING, AND DRYING MACHINE.

Patente APPLICATION FILED JUNE 25. 1911.

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COMBINED CLOTHES CLEANING, EXTRACTING, AND DRYING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED IuNE 26. IsII.

Lg', v Patented Nov. 2, 1915.

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APPLICATION FILED IUNE26. 19H.

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CHARLES C. MEUTSGH, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

COMBINED CLOTHES CLEANING, EXTRACTING,

meenam tions of which has heretofore required three separate and distinct machines from which dry-cleaned clothing must be bodily transfer red in open atmosphere from the cleaning machine to the extracting machine, and thence to the drier, wherein the cleansing of thc clothes, as commonly practised, is accomplished by the use of gasolene or other highly volatile liquids or compounds thereof, or, in other words, by what is generally known as the dry cleansing process.

rlhe prime object of my invention is to make it possible and practical to clean, extract the cleaning liquid therefrom and dry clothes in one and the same machine, and without removing them therefrom, and this inthe shortest possible time, and without exposing the attendants and occupants of the room in which 'a cleansing machine is installed to the nauseating and intoxicating effects of the cleansing liquid, and at'the same time protecting them from fire fre.- quently occurring in the use of volatile liquids, and particularly gasolene, most generally employed, and heretofore of quite frequent occurrence.

A further object of my invention is to successfully prevent the cleansing liquid from being thrown against the joints of the casing door and by centrifugal force discharged therethrough during the cleansing operation.

A still further object of my invention is to provide means for discharging beyond the periphery of the casingand out of future contact with the clothes refuse, such as dirt, buttons, etc., due to and following the cleansing of the clothes.

With these ends in View, my invention finds embodiment. in certain features of novelty in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts by which the said objects and certain other objects are hereinafter attained, all as 4fully described with Specification of Letters Patent.

AND DRYING MACHINE.

'Patented Nov. 2, 1915.

Application filed .T une 26, 1911. Serial No. 635,361.

reference lto the accompanying drawings,

and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In said drawings z- Figure 1 illust-rates a side elevation of a combined cleansing, extracting and drying machine. Fig. 2 is a top plan View thereof with the upper portion of the casing removed and exposing the clothes containing barrel. Fig. 3 is a transverse section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows. Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail longitudinal section on the line 4 4 of Figy looking in the direction indicated by the arrows. Fig. 5 is a similar View on the line 5 5 of Fig. l looking in the direction indicated by the arrows; and, Fig. 6 is a detail of the friction brake for the belt driving mechanism.

Similar characters of reference indicate the same parts in the several figures of the drawings.

Mounted at each end, upon suitable. supports or standards G, is a casing 7 preferably provided internally with a lining of zinc 8, and with a sliding manhole cover 9, confined at its ends in guides formed by the periphery of the casing and recessed bars 10, 10, as shown in Fig. 1, the lowering of which cover 9 serves to expose an opening extending the full length of the casing and providing access thereto and to the clothes therein and for the introduction of the cleansing liqluid. txtending longitudinally of the bottom of the casing is a trough l1 provided with a lining of zinc 1Q, preferably .continuous with that of the casing, the said trough being closed at its opposite ends by means of a plate 13 seated upon a shoulder 14 of the trough, and secured upon its seat by a screw bolt 15, the bearing of which is in a bracket 16, providing means whereby accumulated refuse may be removed from the machine, the casing being preferably cylindrical in form and the trough of any form in cross section that will best subserve its purposes.

Suspended internally of the casing is a barrel 16', the wallsof which are provided with a series of perforations or slits 17, which barrel is closed at its opposite ends by heads 18, to which are secured bearing plates 1S), from which respectively project, through the opposite cnds of the casing, short shafts 2O and 21, suitable and ordinary stuing boxes 22 and Q3 being secured' on the shaft handlever 34 for to the casing for preventing the cleansing liquid from discharging along these shafts.

The barrel 16 is provided with a longitudinal opening for access to clothing placed therein, closed by a door 24, provided at one edge with hinges 25 and with any suitable means, as for example thumb` bolts 26, for locking in a closed position the door 24.

On the shaft 20 is a' reversed gear strueture, such as is commonly employed for clothes cleansing machines, and essentially comprising a loose. gear 27 meshing with a pinion 28 on a short power shaft 29 on which are two loose pulleys 30 and 31, and between which is a fast pulley 32, there being also a clutch 33 actuated by a engaging and disengaging it with the gear 27, which lever 34 also actuates two driving belts (notshown) for alternately shifting the belts from the fixed pulleys 32 to the one or the other of the pulleys 30 and 31, depending upon the direction in which the barrel 16 is to be revolved.

As the details of construction of-the described reverse gear actuating structure forms no part of my invention, nor does any v other device which will alternately, either by hand manipulation or automatically, reverse the direction of revolution of the barrel, it will be understood that my invention `is not limited to the use of any special mechanism for .accomplishing this purpose, and this especially when it is old to reversely rotate the barrel of a closed cleansing machine. It is however the purpose and intention, in -the practice of my invention, to use a driving mechanism therefor at one end which will automatically reverse the direction of movement of the barrel about once in every five revolutions.

So far except as to the trough 11, which is believed to be a novel feature, I have described a casing and barrel, and means for alternately reversing the direction of rotation of the barrel heretofore commonly employed for alone cleansing clothing, and for which purpose itis necessary that the barrel be reversed in its movement to keep the clothing in a loose condition for the passage therethrough of the cleansing liquid and discharge of the dirt and refuse matter therefrom, and following the completion of which the casing and the barrel are openedA up, and clothing saturated and dripping with gasolene is thereu onfnecessarily removed by hand to anoliher machine, commonly known and designated as the extracting machine, and wherein the gasolene or other cleansing' liquid is discharged from thel clothing until but little moisture remains in the clothing, when it must be removed from the extracting machine to a drying room, removin all moisturetherev from, and also the o or of the cleansing uquia. 1

4:arrasa-*sar hole of the trough is opened or partially.

opened by unscrewing the bolt 15, the inner end of which is pivoted in the cover 13, or else discharged through a passage 15l in the bolt 15, which passage may be closed by either a stopper or valve (not shown) and after drawing off the cleansing liquid as far as may be, following which the manhole is closed, the gear 27 is disengaged from its clutch, and thereupon becomes an idler on the shaft 20, and thereafter the barrel is rcvolved at a very high rate of speed until the clothes are extracted of the liquid, as before described, by means now to be referred to.

Secured on the shaft 21 is a driving pulley 35, driven by a belt 36 on a driving pulley 37 on a shaft 38, on which is fixed a small pulley 39, and -a loose pulley 39, the fixed pulley being actuated by a belt 40, connected with an overhead power shaft (not shown), the said several pulleys being so proportioned that the shaft 21 and the barrel may be driven at such a high rate of speed as to discharge from the clothing contained therein the cleansing liquid to a degree leaving substantially no moisture, and, in any event, only so much as may be together with its odors removed by heat.

To retard or stop the revolving of the barrel by this belt mechanism, there is mounted. upon a standard 41, supported from the ioor 42, a friction brake consisting of two jaws, one ofwhich jaws 43 is fixed to the standard, and the other jaw 44 connected to the fixed jaw by a hinge 45 and normally held open by means of a coiled spring-46 seated in the opposing free edges ofthese jaws, which may be forced to a closed position frictionally gripping the shaft 21 by means of a foot lever 47 pivoted to the standard 41 at 48, and connecting and actuatingthe movable jaw 44, through the medium of a bar 49 secured at its lower end t) the foot lever at 50. and at its upper end to a lug 51 projected from the movable jaw.'

both the casing and the trough 11, blocks 53 being inserted against the underside of 'the casing, and the trough serving as a filling between the casing and the band, the ends of vwhich'terininate at the upperA sides of the casing where they are provided with angular bends 54 serving as a seat for a screw bolt 55 passing therethrough for the purpose of 13 Licata? tightening these bands when from shrinkage of the easing it becomes desirable to tighten its joints and its support upon the standards, and also for loosening the band when the same may be necessary.

To prevent the discharge from the casing of the cleansing liquid, when for any reason the casing is opened up, while the barrel is revolved, I suspend from the casing, by one edge, a strip of felt 56, extending the entire length of the bawrelmfand of such a width that when the barrel is revolved, as is customary, in the direction of the arrow, none of the liquid can pass beyond the felt, and to which end the free edge of the felt drags upon the periphery of the barrel.

It is Well known in practice that the escape of the .vapors from dry cleaning machines into the room where the machine is located, and in the presence of the attendants is not only perilous to the building and the attendants from their liability to :explode, but seriously affects the health and comfort ofthe attendants in that these odors are not only. -disagreeable but intoXicate the` attendants, and, therefore, as a means providing against these objectionable results I have connected the inside of the casing with the atmosphere outside of the room, and preferably the building, by means of a pipe 57 in which is an ordinary suction fan 58 upon a shaft 59 driven by any suitable and ordinary means (not shown).

' he employment of friction bearings for the shafts of the clothes cleaning machine is objectionable because of the generation of heat liable to cause an explosion of the volatile cleansing liquids commonly and generally employed,'which liability is increased and aggravated by the impossibility of their lubrication for the reason that gasolene, for example, gets into the bearings and vcuts out the lubricant, and for obviating which they bearings 60 and 61 of the shafts 20 and 21' (see Fig. 2) are provided with balls `(not shown) such as are commonly employed for ball bearing surfaces, which ball bearings also serve as a means for revolving the barrel at a higher rate of speed for extracting with the requirement of less power than if oil bearings were used.

For the drying of the clothing after moisture-is substantially extracted. therefrom, I employ a convolute steam ipe 62 connected ,with any suitable source not shown) ,capable of providing a circulation of steam therethrough, the steam from which, however, is shut ofi during both the cleansing, and for a part', if not during the entire'extracting operation. j

In operation the easing is filled to the desired or required level with' the cleansing liquid, the clothes inserted either before or after the filling, the covers of the barrel aind 58, which casing closed, and the barrel revolved alternately in opposite directions by the reverse gear until the clothing iscleansed and the refuse mat-ter substantially, if not entirely, deposited in the trough 11, whereupon the cleansingv liquid is drawn olf together with the dirt and refuse matter, buttons, etc.,

through the door of the trough into some suitable receptacle (not shown), when, after settling the dirt, etc., it may be again used for the .same purpose.

When the cleansing liquid has been drained from the clothing as much as desired, and been discharged fromthe trough as far as may be, the discharge opening of the trough is then closed, the gear wheel disengaged from its clutch and the belt driving mechanism set in operation to revolve the barrel at suoli a. high rate of speed in the, same direction that the cleansing liquid before remaining in the clothing will be discharged therefrom by centrifugal force through the openings in the barrel into the trough of the casing, following which this driving mechanism is thrown out of action by shifting the belt 40 on tothe loose pulley 39a. The cleansing liquid thus deposited in the trough is discharged therefrom in the manner before described, and following the closing of the discharge opening steam heat is then supplied through the pipe 62 for such a time and at such a degree as will not only drive off all moisture contained in the clothing but the' vapors through the pipe 57 into the open air, this discharge being facilitated through the medium of the suction fan should be kept in operation throughout the drying process, and may,

though not necessarily, be during the cleansing and extracting process.

While I describe wlth great detail the construction of a combined cleansing, extract-l ing and drying machine for clothing, and means by which the odors are prevented escaping therefrom in the presence of the attendants, and discharged outside of the building, it should be understood that my invention is not limited to these details, but finds embodiment in any machine so constructed that clothing may be dry cleaned, the cleansing liquid extracted therefrom and dried by the direct application of heat without their remo-val from the receptacle in which they are cleaned, until they are dried, the odors substantially removed therefrom, and readyl to be pressed for use, and espeeially when the attendants are isolated from contact with such odors, while at the same time is avoided the necessity, previous to my invention, of removing the clothing, arip ping with volatile cleansing liquid, from a cleansing machine to an extracting machine, necessarily and commonly used for discharging from the clothing their saturation with such a liquid.

ingand drying machine,

Having described my invention, what I cla-.im and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1s:-

1. In a combined clothes cleaning, extracting and drying machine the combination of a perforated barrel, an inclosing casing therefor, a trough depending below the same, retaining band trusses continuously surrounding said casing and trough, and mea-ns for adjusting the tension of Said bands, substantially as described.V

2. In a combined clothes comprising in comcleaning, eXtractbination a perforated rotatable barrel, a

surrounding casing therefor and a felt strip 15 my hand and aixed my seal, this 20th day 20 of June, A. D. 1911.

CHARLES C. MEUTSCH. [n s.]

Witnesses:

JNO. G. ELLIo'rr, F. E. BRoM. 

